FIFA/FIDE?

[JonManley]

Just innuendo? I spotted a few facts. Ah well, can't please everyone...

[Nick Burrows]

Just innuendo? I spotted a few facts. Ah well, can't please everyone...

Facts are irrelevant to this guy - he acts like a pantomime dame whenever FIDE are criticised. I thought the article was very good, keep up the good work!

[NickFaulks]

Just innuendo? I spotted a few facts. Ah well, can't please everyone...

Facts are irrelevant to this guy - he acts like a pantomime dame whenever FIDE are criticised. I thought the article was very good, keep up the good work!

I take that "this guy" is me. I suspect that I have done more to derail misguided policies of the FIDE administration than everyone else on this forum combined. The fact that the "official opposition" conducts itself with this level of nonsense is the main reason that they survive.

[NickFaulks]

Just innuendo? I spotted a few facts. Ah well, can't please everyone...

I am willing to believe that there are are few true facts in that article but, just to satisfy my curiosity, which are they?

[JonManley]

Too numerous to list here, I fear, but here are some more: http://www.kingpinchess.net/2015/03/chess-murder-fraud/

[David Sedgwick]

I suspect that I have done more to derail misguided policies of the FIDE administration than everyone else on this forum combined. The fact that the "official opposition" conducts itself with this level of nonsense is the main reason that they survive.

You've never yet supported any challenger to Ilyumzhinov. Perhaps you could encourage someone whom you would support to run in 2018.

[Matthew Turner]

Another perspective on Blatter from the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-32928984

Maybe (hopefully?) some similarities to FIDE there too.

Yes, it is a sensible piece. Taken at face value, it makes you wonder what purpose was served by all the corruption.

As to the similarlties with FIDE ( hopefully? - what exactly are you hoping for? ) the world governing body has certainly brought chess along a great deal in Africa, and this is widely perceived there as the President's personal doing. Nonetheless, in the 2014 election Kasparov made greater inroads in Africa than any other continent. How does that fit the template?

Possibly for entirely cynical reasons Sepp Blatter has expanded football beyond its traditional core and pretty much turned it into a global game. Ilyumzhinov has tried something similar but been much less successful, indeed at the elite adult level it sometimes appears Eastern Europe is again dominating. I suspect in 50 years time it will be seen that Sepp Blatter's time with FIFA was actually a good period for the game, possibly topped off by the impact a World Cup played in the Arab World has on geo-politics. I somehow doubt the same will be said Ilyumzhinov's tenure, however, that is not to say that there weren't some successes along the way.

[Roger de Coverly]

Possibly for entirely cynical reasons Sepp Blatter has expanded football beyond its traditional core and pretty much turned it into a global game.

In both FIFA and FIDE, they have retained a voting system, one association, one vote, which gives far too much power to officials in very small organisations. How many votes would there be for a World Cup in Qatar in summer if the voting franchise was everyone who participated in football at either a playing or organising level?

[Brian Towers]

Possibly for entirely cynical reasons Sepp Blatter has expanded football beyond its traditional core and pretty much turned it into a global game.

In both FIFA and FIDE, they have retained a voting system, one association, one vote, which gives far too much power to officials in very small organisations. How many votes would there be for a World Cup in Qatar in summer if the voting franchise was everyone who participated in football at either a playing or organising level?

On one level some form of proportional representation (eg where each federation has a number of votes equal to the number of FIDE registered players they have) would appear to be more democratic but the net result would be that world chess was run almost exclusively for the benefit of Europe. Similarly football would be run for the benefit of Europe and South America.

Countries and federations in the rest of the world would see an exclusive, rich man's club which had nothing to do with them. The current voting system should lead in the long term to greater democratization by greatly increasing the franchise. Football has clearly already seen this to some extent. One hopes that chess will follow.

[Matthew Turner]

Possibly for entirely cynical reasons Sepp Blatter has expanded football beyond its traditional core and pretty much turned it into a global game.

In both FIFA and FIDE, they have retained a voting system, one association, one vote, which gives far too much power to officials in very small organisations. How many votes would there be for a World Cup in Qatar in summer if the voting franchise was everyone who participated in football at either a playing or organising level?

Yes, but if the result of that is there is a World Cup in Qatar which focuses attention on the Middle East. If youngsters in the gulf states begin to idolise footballers and start to wear football kits rather than more traditional dress I would suggest that will have a much wider impact on World affairs (not necessarily a positive impact of course). Looking back in 50 years time is anyone going to care about the voting system FIFA used?

[JustinHorton]

Too numerous to list here, I fear, but here are some more: http://www.kingpinchess.net/2015/03/chess-murder-fraud/

I'm a little bit sceptical of Browder as a source. He doesn't seem to have any evidential basis (at least not in the passage cited here) for his claim of a fifty per cent cut for Putin, it's just presented as what he reckons. Of course such rake-offs are common practice among corrupt political figures (was it Benazir Bhutto's husband who was nicknamed Mr Ten Per Cent?) and I'm quite prepared to believe it - given whay Putin is and what kind of regime he runs - but not without more to back it up i.e. not on Browder's word per se. (Compare and contrast the splendidly detailed allegations where FIFA are concerned, or for instance Ed Vulliamy's facts and figures regatding Kirsan in the passage cited.)

I don't like Browder much: he never had a word to say about Russian corruption during the years he was among its beneficiaries and while such people can of course be useful witnesses simply because they know such a lot of dirt (I think Khodorovsky, despite being a crook, is one such - here in Spain the former treasurer of the Partido Popular, Luis "El Cabron" Barcenas, is another) that does depend on them making a convincing case that what they say is true.

[NickFaulks]

(Compare and contrast .... Ed Vulliamy's facts and figures regatding Kirsan in the passage cited.)

Really? I don't doubt that Vulliamy accurately reported the Kermlin's claims, but in some cases this would be taken as proof of extortion by a corrupt administration rather than, as here, proof of dishonesty by people cynically avoiding payment of their fair Russian taxes. It depends what view you start with.

[LawrenceCooper]

"Simeon Stoichkov, one of the implicated in the national press conference that revealed the report of the National Agency for Financial Inspection, has actually been banned before for having a chess forum!"

http://www.chessdom.com/bulgarian-chess ... with-bans/

[JustinHorton]

Re: FIFA, there's a new article on ForeignPolicy.com which makes some well-informed observations that might also be applicable to the similar organisation that sits atop our game.

[Roger de Coverly]

which makes some well-informed observations that might also be applicable to the similar organisation that sits atop our game.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/09/the ... ut-soccer/

The article accuses European bodies as being just as vulnerable to patronage based vote rigging as their World counterparts. Whilst Kirsan goes round the world spending Russian money, you don't see ECF factions offering money or support to local Leagues in exchange for votes.